Last week we saw how the loyal soldier within all of us always develops first in a sphere of tradition and rules. These can be culturally, institutionally, or personally installed, but they are the rails upon which we first gain a view of the world.  

The reality created by tradition is too small. As a person's consciousness expands, it begins to ask questions or press against it's formative container. Most don't realize that this is a spiritual expansion, it is a plant that has become root bound in a small pot.

Defiance tells us that our consciousness is in its adolescence.  Our souls go to war with tradition and the backlash is that tradition throws all of its weight of guilt, shame, and fear into keeping us within it's system. 

If we give into the pressure of tradition, we will vilify those who got out of its grasp, and we will spend our lives shoring up the walls to keep as many as possible from escaping.  This is the hallmark of modern religious institutions. Politics also thrives by creating distinctions and throwing stones at opposing sides and neither party ever grows up. Contemporary Christianity has sadly derailed from its founder's teaching on liberating people from such systems and has constructed some of the highest walls we know.

For those who get out, they go into a form of EXILE and their world expands exponentially.  I call this the "Power-o-meter" stage. Since ones faith system must be bigger than the world into which they now live, most people are forced to jettison their small faith at this time because it lacks the categories to integrate faith and the realities of life.  Individuals exercise their own power, and it is either the power to rise up or the power to quit (which seem similar at their beginning).

Our world loves the break out story. It's ultimately the Easter story being retold over and over.  Think about the music scenes of Hip Hop and Rock & Roll. Both genres typify people who are rising up out of constraints or oppression. What they call "the man", or "the system" the bible calls "principalities and powers".  

Every success story is beloved because it embodies the internal struggle of liberation for which we all hunger.  Faith in this new world must capture the nuances of all deeper realities, and allow for unique ways of expression. Try and fit something this big back into a "Sunday School" system with all its tribal language, and modern people will tune it out. Empowered people have no desire to go back, nor can they. Yet most churches still want to play "Red-Rover" with empowered people.

For me, my mission has been to invite people to higher levels, bringing them out into liberation, and providing the widest possible categories for them to experience the richness of the development of their soul.  Empowered people need empowered categories to grow their soul or else they too will get stuck in their own empowerment, just as many get stuck  in tradition.

"I help people who want to understand spirituality to make sense of their religious experience, so they can clearly see God in the world."
        ~Keven Winder, PhD

For coaching, questions or comments: keven@kevenwinder.com